Christmas Mayhem: Prologue

The guild buzzed with a certain type of excitement, the type that only came around when a good three inches of fresh snow layered the ground on the morning of Christmas Eve. Sure, the holiday season typically had a special type of energy, and the people of Fairy Tail thrived in it as everyone else did, but something about a snow storm hours before Christmas day had everyone acting capriciously.

Not to mention the annual Christmas bash Makarov, Mirajane, and Erza always planned took place today. The trio would spend hours cooped up in the master's office during the month of December, planning out activities and games to play, typically narrowing down to three games with three main points to each game. One objective chosen by Makarov, the other by Erza, and the third by Mirajane. As can be imagined, those games were usually a sight to behold. All unique, odd, and fun in their own little ways.

Shifting in her seat next to her pink haired dragon slayer best friend, Lucy stood up and walked over to one of the many windows of the guild. She pushed a string of paper snowflakes made by Mirajane out of the way so she could check up on the progress of the snow. It didn't seem to be stopping, and if anything it'd thickened over the hour Lucy had spent at the guild in wait of the festivities to begin.

"Lucy you should be more careful!"

Craning her neck, Lucy caught sight of Natsu standing a couple measured steps away from her, an amused frown aimed at her while he crossed his arms. Something about him seemed smug, like she'd just done something really stupid and he had the honor of witnessing it.

Crossing her own arms as she fully faced him, Lucy wrinkled her nose at him. "And what is that supposed to mean?" Sometimes Natsu could be such a…she didn't even know, but it annoyed her.

Scoffing, he thrust one arm into the air, pointing to the ceiling area directly above her head. "You walked right underneath it!" He exclaimed in minor outrage. Rolling her eyes, Lucy stepped out from underneath the mistletoe. The entire month had been filled with Natsu bragging about never being caught underneath the mistletoe in all of his years of being a part of the guild. As of today, the 24th of December, Lucy had found herself unsuspecting under the mistletoe thirteen times, all of them ending without a kiss, but a ration of teasing from the dragon slayer that noticed her blunder.

"What if I wanted to get kissed huh?" She teased right back. He made this disgruntled sound, like he didn't believe her.

"Why would you want to get kissed by anyone in the guild?" He followed her back to her seat at the table with their drinks. She could practically hear the disgust in his voice as he went on, "Like, no offense or anything, but I don't see the hype in this whole kissing thing. What's so exciting about it? It's not like its fun or anything right? I mean who would want to swap spit anyway? Now if you had to punch the other person in the face every time you walked under a mistletoe with someone—that would be fun!"

Plopping down back in the chair, Lucy heaved a heavy breath while she let her eyes roam the guild. Mirajane had went with a snowflake theme, and everywhere she looked at least one decoration hung from a shelf, or hook, or wall. She watched a particularly sparkly ceiling hanging spin instead of dignifying Natsu's reasoning with a response. Only he-or maybe Gray-would like that type of mistletoe. She could so picture herself meeting him under a mistletoe expecting a kiss from the idiot, only to get a well aimed punch to the face.

That sounded just about as fun as getting punished by Master Makarov.

"Anyway," Lucy opted for changing the subject, wouldn't want any other idiot catching wind of Natsu's brilliant take on the holiday tradition, "What do you think Mirajane, Master, and Erza are planning? I'm so excited for this!" It was her first Christmas with Fairy Tail, and Lucy couldn't help but feel giddy about the unknown. She literally had no idea what those three could be planning. As people all of them were so different, and the fact that they had to work together and compromise to make this thing work both impressed Lucy and frightened her. On one hand the games would probably turn out off the wall because each of them had such different tastes where fun was concerned. Erza would probably go for something involving a competition, or a battle. Mirajane had been obsessed with trying to get Natsu stuck under the mistletoe. She'd had it with his gloating by the first week, and ever since she'd spent her time away from the bar switching up the positions of the bundles of berries and flowers to try to mess with him. Lucy would bet money that mistletoes would be involved because of that. And Master Makarov, well he was the biggest pervert she'd ever seen. So that ought to be fun.

"Last year we had a scavenger hunt, the catch being you had to find a certain person and give them and Eskimo kiss first. You had to pull a name out of the hat. I got Elfman," Natsu shivered as if the memory had bile blotting up his throat, "Then we had a sledding race. Gray won that 'cause he's a cheater. And before we got to go back inside for the dancing and food and stuff we exchanged our secret santa gifts. I liked that one best. Too bad we didn't have that activity this time. I had to get a gift for Cana. Easiest. Person. Ever."

Lucy giggled nodding in agreement. That all sounded extremely entertaining to her, and she hoped this year at least lived up to those standards, if not surpassing them. "What was the after party like?"

Natsu quirked his eyebrow in thought, rubbing the back of his head in thought. He reclined in his chair as he answered. "Lots of alcohol, dirty dancing, and mistletoe action cause no one's paying attention to the ceiling. Except for me of course!" He added proudly, smiling that overly animated grin of his that made her want to alternatively hug him and smack him at the same time. Only Natsu could think that paying attention to the ceiling while girls practically dry humped each other while dancing was a good thing.

"AHEM!" At the second floor of the guild a voice boomed, grabbing her attention from her dimwitted friend and focusing it onto the tiny form of the Master. He stood on the railing, flanked by both Erza and Mirajane.

"The first activity will begin shortly," Master called, silencing the rest of the guild's chatter with the one statement. Lucy wasn't the only one excited for the Holiday bash to start from the looks of it, "Mirajane here will tell you the objective and rules!"

Lucy scooted to the edge of her seat, legs bouncing with poorly concealed excitement. Mirajane stepped up beside Master Makarov, leaning over the railing with a wide smile.

"So, the game I've chosen is a race! The first person to kiss five people on the lips wins, and the game ends there. The catch is that it takes place in town, so there will be NO MAGIC. As in if you are caught using magic you won't be able to play in the other games. Also, there are mistletoes set up randomly throughout town, and if you run underneath one a rune we had Freed cast will keep you encased there until you either get kissed are kiss someone. Each kiss equals one point. The loser gets punished by Master later," Mirajane's sweet smile fell into a devious one, "And just so everyone knows, if you catch Natsu under a mistletoe and you kiss him, that counts as two points. But remember if he kisses you then he gets two points!"

"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed, arms thrown up in the air, "That's not fair, this game in itself is unfair, and icky, and...just stupid!" Despite saying this, his face glowed a healthy pink color.

Lucy, despite it seeming very exciting, couldn't help but think that Natsu had a point. They shouldn't be forced into kissing people when they don't want to, and although she would take part in the game for the sake of having fun and bonding with her friends, Lucy foresaw a lot of awkward encounters in her future.

"If you feel that way Natsu you don't have to play," Makarov spoke up, putting a hand on Mirajane. The eldest Strauss sister looked about ready to release her Satan Soul on Natsu, "But you'll automatically get the least amount of kisses and have to answer to me."

Natsu thought about this for all of two seconds before grimacing. "I think I'll try my luck in the game on second thought…." Lucy couldn't tell if Makarov's threat made him change his mind or if Mirajane's dark glare had him taking his words back. The only thing she did know was that he was looking at her with a scheming smile.

"W-What?" She stammered, shocked.

"You walk underneath mistletoes without anyone tricking you into them on a daily basis, so to avoid the old man's punishment I think I may just follow you around!" Natsu snorted, and Lucy colored. He did realize that following her around meant kissing her, repetitively, right. She had half a mind to remind him of that, but didn't have the guts to bring it up. It was just too embarrassing. Instead she fiddled with the edges of her white and red striped skirt, not making eye contact.

"Why are you so keen on avoiding Master's punishment?" Lucy asked in hopes of changing the subject.

Natsu glanced up at Makarov, then shivered like merely looking at him frightened him. "You're a girl, the worst he'll do to you is spank you. But I'm a guy, and he actually does some pretty mean things to guys who lose at these games or get into trouble. One year he made Gray repair every single broken chair he saved over the course of that year. That's hundreds of chairs Lucy! I don't wanna spend weeks fixing chairs!" Natsu groaned in horror.

"So you'd rather have Master sexually assault your team mates and friends?" Lucy hoped the snide comment would shed some light on the situation and make him realize that the noble thing to do was to take a bullet for the team.

She had no such luck. "Now you're getting it Lucy! I knew I liked you for a reason!"

Lucy smacked her head on the table, wondering how she ended up stuck with that idiot as her best friend, team mate, and sadly, crush.

"Okay everyone!" Mirajane piped up, back to her normal, cheerful self, "Everyone put some warm clothes on! Once everyone is dressed you have five minutes to strategize and hide yourself among the streets before the mistletoes activate! We'll have Warren signify when the game starts!"

Lucy stood up to go get her coat and boots, anticipation makes her limbs shake. A rueful smile broke her stern stare. If Natsu was going to target her then he had another thing coming.

AN:

Merry Christmas everyone! So chapter one will be posted later on tonight or early tomorrow morning! I've decided to do a four-chapter thing for a Christmas gift (as well as updating some of my other stories ;)) So this will be completed on Christmas, or maybe even the day after if I don't get enough time to finish the chapters. They're short, so I should do fine. XD I hope you guys liked this, keep an eye out for the next chapter!